Contrast structures, limit dynamics, and the Painlevé paradox (Q1874803)

The authors consider a slow-fast system which models many specific mechanical systems with Coulomb and viscous friction. So, the right-hand side of the system has a discontinuity surface. This problem is connected with the appearance of contrast structures in boundary value problems for singularly perturbed differential equations. The authors deal with the mechanism of appearance of jump- and spike-like contrast structures for the related singularly perturbed Cauchy problems. They study general forms of phase portraits, boundary layers, contrast structures, and auto-oscillations for this three-dimensional system. First, conditions are presented for the stability of the equilibrium point located on the discontinuity surface. They prove the existence of a stable manifold of slow motions in each one of the half-spaces. Under certain conditions on the system parameters, the authors characterize equilibrium points on appropriate manifolds. In words of the authors, it is necessary to reject the conjecture of an ``absolutely rigid body'' when modeling mechanical systems with dry friction and the Painlevé paradox. In the paradoxical domain of parameters, they have found unexpected phenomena which are presented in this paper.